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AAUP to investigate more LSU firings

Thursday, November 4th, 2010

From The Advocate by Fred Mulhearn, Dec 2009

The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) recently sent a stern letter to LSU Chancellor Michael Martin.

“With our Association’s investigating committee currently drafting its report on the van Heerden and Homberger cases, we find it necessary to convey additional concerns…” the letter began.

The letter outlined the complaint of the so-called “Foreign Language 14”, a group of 14 instructors in LSU’s Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures who all received a letter of nonreappointment in January of this year.

The letter asserts that the instructors should have received more advanced notice that their contracts would not be renewed.

AAUP is also investigating the nonrenewal of Ivor van Heerden’s contract and the removal of Dominique Homberger mid-semester both of which occurred in April 2010.

Dr. van Heerden is an advisor to Levees.org. This week, we asked Dr. van Heerden if he had any news to share regarding the AAUP’s investigation of the nonrenewal of his contract. He responded that he did not.

Click here for story in the LSU Reveille.

Levees.org thanks Editilla of the New Orleans Ladder for bringing the Reveille story to our attention.

Levees.org founder to be guest on international panel

Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010

A slab in the lower Ninth Ward appears eerie in this black and white photo taken April 2008. Photo/Francis James

On Thursday, Sandy Rosenthal of Levees.org will participate on a panel before 13 visiting international journalists (with interpreters).

The group – in New Orleans with the Edward R. Murrow Program for Journalists arranged through the State Department – represents Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Kazakhstan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Tajikistan.

Also appearing on the panel will be Ms. Rebecca Currence of Women of the Storm and Matt Davis, staff writer at The Lens.

The panel will meet with the visitors and talk about the role and impacts of local, grassroots, citizen action in addressing significant events that have occurred in New Orleans in recent years. The role of civil society in advocating for the welfare of local citizens and communities and the non-profit’s relationship to the government/public sector could be discussed.

The panel is 1-2:15p on November 4 New Orleans Citizen Diplomacy Council office at 1215 Prytania Street, New Orleans.

New York Times columnist gets the Levees.org Seal of Approval

Thursday, October 28th, 2010

Ground zero of the 17th Street Canal in Lakeview New Orleans

New York Times columnist Bob Herbert has earned the Levees.org ‘Seal of Approval’ for his portrayal of the flooding of New Orleans in a recent column about crumbling American infrastructure.

(Hat tip to the New Orleans Ladder for hipping us to the column.)

Mr. Herbert points out that most U.S. citizens take their water systems completely for granted (e.g clean drinking water, flood protection) and why that is a dangerous thing to do.

He closes the piece by observing the failure of the levees and floodwalls in New Orleans in 2005.

“The horror stories abound: the drowning of New Orleans when the levees failed in 2005, the 2007 explosion of an ancient steam pipe in Manhattan that killed one person and injured more than 30, the gas pipeline explosion and fire last month in San Bruno, Calif., that killed seven and injured more than 50. There are endless other examples, tragic, costly and unnecessary.”

We observe that Mr. Herbert did not even mention the word Katrina. Mr. Herbert gets the ‘Seal of Approval’ for accurately describing the flooding of metro New Orleans. That’s important because saying the region was devastated by a hurricane could be dangerous for the 55% of the American people who live in counties protected by levees.

Click here for the article.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/26/opinion/26herbert.html?_r=2

Click here to see the counties protected by levees.
https://levees.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/USCountiesWithLeveesMainMap5_121009_107K.jpg